Rajshahi farmers cash in on jujube cultivation

Farmers of Rajshahi’s Bagha upazila are making a massive profit of Tk 21 crore a year from jujube cultivation from only 290 hectares of riverine land along the Padma River.

Over 500 jujube orchard owners and 9,000 people of the locality are being able to make a trade of Tk 32 crore a year through applying a different growing technique named “girdling” to get a better yield and larger fruits.

About 290 hectares of land in Nichpalashi Char, a riverine area in Chakrajapur union, located eight kilometres east of Bagha Sadar, have been brought under jujube cultivation using the girdling technique with facilitation from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), confirmed the agriculture officer of the upazila, Shafiullah Sultan.

“A yield of over 45 to 50 metric tonnes of jujube can be harvested from a hectare of land. Growers can get a production of about 13,050 to 14,500 metric tonnes of the fruit from the 500 orchards, which sell for around Tk 32.62 crore by using this technique,” he said, quoting the farmers. He further mentioned that growers and orchard owners make a profit of around Tk 21.75 crore, excluding the production cost.

The agriculture officer of the upazila said that jujube cultivation has significantly improved the economic scenario of the area by creating massive employment opportunities for the locals.

“There are over 500 orchards here run by 500 local entrepreneurs who employ over 8,700 people of the locality as farmhands. About 30 farmhands work per hectare of land, and each of these workers gets Tk 350 to 450 a day. The orchard owners make a profit of Tk 1 lakh from a bigha of land (0.133 hectares) with a production cost of only Tk 50,000 to 60,000,” said DAE official Shafiullah.

During a recent visit to the area, growers were seen busy plucking the mature jujubes from the orchards expecting a massive profit this season as well.

The orchardists told The Business Post that as they are obtaining massive profits from the fruit, they are planning to expand their businesses the following season. “Because of this new technique, we have got a better yield. The jujubes are tastier and larger in size, and that is why these fruits are high in demand among the consumers,” said Sohel Rana, a jujube grower of the area.

“The riverine lands are more fertile than other agricultural lands, and we have to use less fertiliser in these lands, which in turn reduces the production cost. If we can grow a jujube tree properly, the tree can live up to 12 to 15 years, and a good amount of fruit can be obtained from them,” he said, adding that they supply these fruits to Narayanganj, Chattogram, Sylhet, Feni, Mymensingh and other districts including the capital.

Arifur Rahman, a grower of Nichpalashi Char, said that these sprouting orchards are creating massive employment opportunities for local youths, and they are getting inclined towards agriculture, considering its good returns.

“The peak season for jujube cultivation is from December to March. I have cultivated the fruit on 12 bighas (1.60 hectares) of land and am expecting a profit of Tk 1 lakh per bigha,” Arifur said.

According to the DAE sources, girdling for fruit production is a frequently used technique on peach and nectarine trees. Girdling also called ring-barking, is the complete removal of the bark from around the entire circumference of either a branch or trunk of a woody plant. Orchardists use girdling as a cultural technique to yield larger fruit or to set fruit. In viniculture (grape cultivation), the technique is also called cincturing.

Girdling is also used as a technique to force a fruit-bearing plant to bear larger fruit. A farmer would place a girdle (bark removal) at the base of a large branch or at the trunk. Thus, all sugars manufactured by the leaves have no sinks but the fruit, which grows to above the normal size. For jujubes girdling or cincturing is used to make the jujube large and sweeter on the jujube canopy and are sold as girdled jujube, said agriculture officer of the upazila, Shafiullah Sultan.

Girdling is commonly used on grapes, avocado, apple, litchi, mango, citrus, jujube and other trees. Girdling usually is done on healthy trees that did not yield well the previous year. Care must be used not to damage sapwood that may kill the tree or vine. Trees normally heal in four to five weeks after cincturing. Painting the cut can protect against fungus and pests, he added.